


Observation

by narsus



Category: Skyfall (2012) - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Introspection, Post-Movie(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-03
Updated: 2013-04-03
Packaged: 2017-12-07 09:38:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/747037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/narsus/pseuds/narsus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Q finds reason to adjust his analysis of the new M.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Observation

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Skyfall belongs to Eon Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and others. Based on James Bond by Ian Fleming.

Up until recently he’d supposed that he had Mallory entirely figured out. Career military, and then career civil servant when the former hadn’t worked out. Someone who ticked all the boxes and did the job with efficiency, if not a fair amount of dispassion. All of it perfectly, transparently, simple. Wheels within wheels merely rotating for rotation’s sake.

Until that one afternoon when he’d knocked and entered abruptly because, damn it, he was head of section and he didn’t have time for these theatrics. The afternoon he’d stepped into M’s office to find the man sat motionless behind his desk, very obviously deep in introspection, to the point that he hadn’t noticed the interruption. At least, so it had struck Q at first. The hand that gestured him to a seat, all without that abstract gaze ever quite seeing him, indicated otherwise. And then those unblinking eyes had snapped up, fixing on his, and boring into him.

After that he’d had to recalibrate his analysis because M, properly so called, was something else entirely. Perhaps he’d been ‘Mallory’ once, no doubt when it had suited him to be, for any number of reasons. But Mallory wasn’t needed currently so perhaps that mask had been shelved. Instead, behind the mahogany desk, lurked something that wasn’t quite Duke Atreides nor quite God-Emperor. Thus, for the moment at least, tactically, it was probably best to play the role of Mentat. Not least of all because, eventually, a Mentat Duke would be formidable indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> Obligatory _Dune_ references.
> 
> _"You'll be the Duke someday, Son," his father said. "A Mentat Duke would be formidable indeed."_  
>  \- Frank Herbert's _Dune_


End file.
